DETROIT -- It was inevitable. As soon as Jose Valverde inked his one-year deal to rejoin the Detroit Tigers, and was promptly anointed the closer by manager Jim Leyland, you knew he'd be tested immediately.

And he delivered against the first-place Kansas City Royals on Wednesday, getting a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his first save of the season in a 7-5 victory.

"It was exciting at the end to see Papa Grande come in and shut the door for us," Victor Martinez admitted.

With the Tigers sitting on a two-run lead in the ninth, Valverde trotted out to his usual Metallica accompaniment, "End of the Line."

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Facing the top of the Royals' order, Valverde got Alex Gordon to fly out, Alcides Escobar to ground out and Billy Butler to fly out to end it.

Along the way, he had the 30,347 fans at Comerica Park -- most of whom had stood to cheer when he entered -- on the edge of their seats the whole way.

Exactly how you'd script the Big Potato's return.

"You have to understand in this game there's emotional rides. It's pretty much 'what have you done for me lately?' We all understand that. Yeah, I expected that. Our fans are good. I really expected that tonight, and I was glad to see it, yes," Leyland said of the ovation Valverde received. "We've got some flexibility down there now, and if this works out with Papa Grande, that would be music to everyone's ears It lets you get the guys in the order you want them. For one night, anyway, it worked out pretty good."

It helped that the offense that had struggled so much at the end of the West Coast swing picked it up, led by a two-hit, two-RBI game from Martinez, who brought his average briefly above the Mendoza Line.

"Well, he swung the bat really well. Like I said ... you gotta believe in the track record, and Victor's got a great track record. He's going to hit," Leyland said. "These are tough conditions for everybody right now. Tough to pitch in, tough to hit in. But Victor's going to hit. He had a good night tonight."

Martinez laced an RBI double down the first-base line in the third inning that made it 2-1 at the time, then had an RBI single in the four-run fourth inning.

The wisest play he made, though, may have been simply side-stepping a potential collision at the plate, conceding the final out of the third inning.

"Trust me, it was a really long year for me last year, so I wouldn't do anything stupid. If I'm out, I'm out. If I'm safe, I'm safe," said Martinez, who missed all of 2012 after knee surgery. "I saw the catcher get the ball and I was almost halfway to get to the plate. There's no reason to run over the catcher. No reason to try and do anything stupid. I want to keep playing baseball."

Jhonny Peralta's RBI single to right field went right to Jeff Francouer, whose laser to home plate beat the ambling Martinez -- trying to score from second -- by a good 10 steps. Rather than risk banging himself up on on a foregone conclusion, Martinez merely peeled off harmlessly toward the dugout.

"He did absolutely the right thing. It's one of those things, as a third-base coach, normally you're saying with two outs, take a chance," Leyland said. "If he throws it off-line, Victor scores. Francouer's a great thrower, he's very accurate, so there's a good chance he was going to be out. But there's no sense in any kind of collision or anything, no. Just tag him, and get it over with."

The bottom of the Tigers' lineup -- the "Catfish" in Torii Hunter's parlance -- got the offense started in the second inning, when Omar Infante finished off a two-out rally with an RBI single to break the scoreless tie.

After the Royals strung together five straight hits to start the third inning, taking a 4-1 lead, the Tigers would strike back with two runs in the third inning to get back within one. Martinez would have been the tying run, had he scored ahead of Francouer's throw.

It became a moot point when the Tigers batted around in the fourth, knocking Royals starter Wade Davis out of the game with four runs, making it 7-4. After a leadoff walk to Alex Avila, Infante followed with a single, and would score when Hunter's hard-hit ball went right through the legs of KC third baseman Mike Moustakas.

Miguel Cabrera's sacrifice fly plated the go-ahead run, then a walk to Prince Fielder set up Martinez's RBI single. Reliever Luis Mendoza walked Peralta with the bases loaded to force in another run.

Max Scherzer would give one run back in the fifth, with back-to-back walks to lead off the inning, followed by an infield single to load the bases. Scherzer would walk Eric Hosmer to force in a run, cutting Detroit's lead to 7-5.

Valverde threw 18 pitches -- all fastballs -- in his one inning of work, not showing the split-finger fastball that had been such a key to his re-signing.

A large part of that was due to the 39-degree weather throughout the game, making it tough to grip a pitch like the splitter.

"It's a little bit of a tough pitch to throw normally, let alone in cool weather. Hopefully we'll get that going," Leyland said.

"I'd like to see you try to throw a split finger in that," Valverde said with a laugh.

The conditions were not easy for anyone, but especially for Valverde who'd been throwing in Florida to get ready for the season. That's why him hitting 95 mph on the radar gun wasn't shocking, but it wasn't a no-brainer, either.

"Wasn't really sure, because you're talking down there (Florida), 92-97, but you're talking about 80 degrees. You're talking about here waiting around to come in, then getting warmed up. Then the long walk in from the bullpen, and the cold weather. Wasn't really sure what to expect, but I thought he threw the ball very well," Leyland said.

"Well, absolutely (it was tough). But he wants to be the closer. That was kind of discussed before he ever came here, that that's what he wants to do. And that's what intend on doing. Like I say, we just have to look at things, and see how they go. But certainly he passed the test with flying colors. He was around the plate, he had good velocity, and he spotted the ball pretty well.

"Yeah, that's a tough one. You knew the first one back was going to be -- you know, a little emotion with the crowd, and probably for him. I don't know that. Certainly for me. All the coaches and all the players on the bench were pulling so hard for him. Tonight it worked out fine.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Email him at matt.mowery@oakpress.com and follow him on Twitter @matthewbmowery.